So it occurred to me: there are a lot of very sharp, very well-informed SF/fantasy fans that read this blog (and at least one award-winning SF author that I know of). So why not do a little awarding of our own?

And so I would like to welcome you to the First Annual We Hunted The Mammoth Serious Kitten Awards.

Nominate your favorites in the categories below — and if there are any more categories you think I should add, suggest them. Every category with at least 5 nominees will be voted on in a future post; the rest will be dropped.

Use your best judgment when choosing the right category for your nominations. Speculative fiction, science fiction, fantasy, horror, all good. EBooks, self-published books, all fine. I’ll make other rules/clarifications/pronouncements as necessary.

The only thing that isn’t fine: No nominations for anyone or any work included in the Sad Puppies or Rabid Puppies Hugo slates, except in the “worst” categories, if you think they deserve it. The point is to highlight work that might otherwise get overlooked because of the Sad/Rabid Puppies ballot-stuffing.

The categories:

Best Novel (published in 2014)

Best Novella (published in 2014)

Best Short Story (published in 2014)

Best SF-related Nonfiction Book (published in 2014)

Best Comic/Graphic Novel (published in 2014)

Best Webcomic (ongoing, but has to have appeared in 2014)

Best SF site (ongoing, but had to exist in 2014)

Best SF blog (ongoing, but had to exist in 2014)

Best SF movie (released or or shown on television in 2014, i.e. SyFy movies count)

Best SF TV series (for episodes from 2014)

Best SF podcast/Youtube channel (ongoing, had to exist in 2014)

Best SF Twitterer (ongoing, but had to be on Twitter in2o14)

Coolest SF person (ongoing, but had to be cool in 2014)

Biggest SF asshole (ongoing, but had to be an asshole in 2014. Can include those associated with Sad Puppies and/or Rabid Puppies)

Worst SF novel

Worst SF movie

Worst SF TV series

.NEW CATEGORY: Best SF game

Have at it! Make sure you specify what category your nomination should be in! The winners will win … something!

The Wind Rises is excellent, upbeat and not particularly depressing (two downers, but one would be a spoiler and in the second the war situation has developed not necessarily to Japan’s advantage). Of course it is incredibly hard to find a film as depressing as Grave of the Fireflies. Fun fact: Grave of the Fireflies was originally shown as a double bill with My Neighbor Totoro. Talk about mood whiplash! Unless you subscribe to this interpretation of Totoro:http://www.tofugu.com/2013/08/15/conspiracy-theory-totoro/

The Wind Rises doesn’t have any speculative elements (unless you count dream sequences), so sadly, I don’t think it would probably be eligible. But you should all go watch it. The tone is wistful, but not depressing.

Only a couple of Wright’s nominations got booted, unfortunately, and only because of prior publication. I love that when the Hugo organizers looked at how the contest was going, that’s what made them go “No. This can’t be allowed.”

I see our host has already answered my implied question: “Feel free to nominate more than one book/person/etc per category.” Very well, then, I amend my nomination ballot.

•Best Webcomic: In adddion to Girl Genius, I also nominate Darths&Droids, Order of the Stick, Erfworld, and Goblins.
•Best SF movie: In addition to Snowpiercer, I also nominate Under the Skin, Divergent, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and Birdman (magical realism is a form of SF)
•Best SF TV series: In addition to the The Walking Dead, I nominate Extant, The 100, Constantine, Warhouse 13, and Resurrection.
•Worst SF movie: In addition to Atlas Shrugged III: Who Is John Galt?, I nominate the rest of the SF movies that I mentioned in Razzies and Robocop, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Legend of Hercules, and Transformers: Age of Extinction, plus Left Behind.

Also games: I second Dragon Age: Inquisition and add the English language release of Archeage.

That Ursula Vernon story was great! I like Ursula Vernon and have been following her off and on for over 10 years now, but I have trouble keeping up with all she’s done.

I’m not that current on… most things, really… but I do have some nominations.

Nominations!
Best comic/graphic novel:
Courtney Crumrin: The Final Spell
(One reason that this is so great is that some of Courtney’s earlier actions that probably weren’t intended originally to be revisited, come back and have Consequences.)
Legends of Red Sonja

Best SF movie:
Into the Woods
I’m not sure if it’s the “best”, but it at least deserves a nomination.
(I’d probably pick Song of the Sea as best if I’d seen it, I just haven’t had a chance to yet. But I really liked “Book of Kells”.)

Best SF Game:
Boss Monster
The category doesn’t specify “video game” so I assume it’s OK to nominate a card game. I waffled on whether I should nominate this since I think this is the only 2014 game I’ve played, and I haven’t had a chance to play it much, but I do like it.

Coolest person: Wil Wheaton. However, I would like a special Pledge of Undying Love Award to go to Felicia Day.
Best movie: my husband wants Winter Soldier, but I want Guardians of the Galaxy.
Best comic: my husband nominates Inhuman. My pick is Rachel Rising.
Worst SF TV: Doctor Who episode “Kill the Moon.” Twice if possible.

Best novel – the Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin, translated by Ken Liu
Best short story – The Colour of Paradox by A.M. Dellamonica
Best SF series – Arrow
Coolest SF person – Saladin Ahmed
Biggest SF asshole – Larry Correia because Vox Day doesn’t deserve even negative recognition

Okay, I can’t believe I forgot this one, but I have to add The Young Protectors to my list of nominations for best webcomic. Probably NSFW, given men kissing each other and male nudity with (in)convenient obstructions. Probably needs a trigger warning for rape and/or sexual abuse. It is a superhero comic, and it has some of the problematic issues that typically come with those, though it doesn’t seem to be anywhere near as bad as mainstream comics (or maybe that’s just my privilege blinding me; I still struggle with it, see below).

—–

Also, I just realized that when nominating Sleep Hollow I called the heroes “Team Good Guys” right before mentioning that the team was roughly half female. Ugh. Sorry about that, gals! Let’s just call them Team Good, yeah?

@Nes–Eh, I try not to do it around people when I know it bothers them, but I think “guys” (plural, anyway) is just about unisex at this point and I use it that way. See also: “Guys” who are all very femme/girly women.

“You guys” is the standard 2nd person plural in my dialect, and it’s not gendered. I try not to use it online, though, because the internet has allowed me to connect with English speakers from around the globe, and some of them have told me that it either made them feel misgendered or ignored.

I read something by John C. Wright in which he claimed to have been an atheist for years before converting to the worship of Bel-Shamharoth*. If he’s telling the truth, atheists of good will everywhere have something to be grateful for, if nobody to be grateful to.

*Not his words, but anyone as vile and evil as he appears to be should be a devotee of that fictional entity.

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